What Happens When You License Your Music

by Aaron Davidson

So, you’ve done your homework and you’ve researched numerous places to submit your music to.  Let’s suppose that all your hardwork pays off and you land a deal with a publisher, for example, who wants to represent your music.  What happens next?

Well the first thing that is going to happen is you will be presented with a contract that grants the rights to your new publisher to “shop” your song to various outlets on your behalf.  There are different types of deals.  The first deal I signed granted my publisher exclusive rights to pitch any songs I licensed to her within the TV and Film industry for perpetuity.  In other words my publisher is the only publisher that represents the songs I signed to her and any money that is made as a result of these songs being broadcast in either Television or Film my publisher gets a piece of – forever.  I still own the copyright, but my publisher gets a piece of any royalties generated within the context of TV and Film placements.  At the time I felt like this was a fair trade off, since I had NO contacts within the music business worth speaking of.  And I’m actually still fine with the arrangement.  My publisher simply has many more contacts than I do.

But I am careful about signing similiar agreements with some of my newer songs.  There are other companies that are fine with representing your music on a non exclusive basis so it’s ultimately up to you to use your discretion and make deals that make sense to you.  Just be aware that both types of arrangements exist.

What happens after you’ve signed a deal with a publisher? Well, then you sit back and wait and hope they place your material for you.  Not everything gets placed though, so keep that in mind. Some of my songs have been picked up right away, some have been picked up more than a year after I’ve signed them and some have never been used at all.

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